divinethedivine, I'm still pitiful in every way, but I hereby offer you nearly 1000 words of still-cursed Kathryn/Jim aka Abigail/Frederick.
Set immediately after the conversation she has with David in the hospital in 1.19.
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chapped
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Their first real meeting in Storybrooke is when he visits her in the hospital right after David leaves. Kathryn’s smile has dropped, and she’s biting her lip because even though she isn’t angry at him anymore, it still hurts to say goodbye. She may not be it for him - he might not be it for her - but Kathryn had thought they were, once. Her mother and father are long dead, she has no other relatives, few friends; even if they were never truly in love with each other, for a long time Kathryn has loved David. Saying goodbye to him now feels like losing her only family.
She doesn’t cry. She’s going to be fine.
But it still hurts.
"Hi," he sighs happily, then hesitates before taking the chair by her bed. "I - is this a good time? I uh, I passed your husband in the hall…"
"No, it’s fine," she says, and smiles. "He’s not my husband anymore. But it’s fine."
The man (his face is vaguely familiar) raises his eyebrows, but seems to think better of asking. Instead he says, “Sorry, I know you don’t know me, but… I’m the one who found your car at the town line, and I was in the search team and - just, I needed to see for myself that you were safe.”
Kathryn can feel the smile on her lips shifting into something much softer. “Oh,” she says, feeling truly touched. “Thank you. As you can see, I’m just fine.”
He looks her over and frowns, pretty obviously biting back a comment. Kathryn knows she looks weak, tired and sad - and she is, but she’s also determined. She finally feels true closure, she feels ready to take the next step as soon as she’s cleared to go. So it hurts, but it will be fine. Soon enough she’ll be perfectly fine.
“You look better than fine,” the man says, and then half a second later blushes bright red. “I mean, not like… just, you seem strong after all you’ve… I’m sorry, that was – I can just-”
He’s getting up to leave, hands gesturing awkwardly around him, when Kathryn bursts out laughing. And something about that feeling, the completely unexpected giggle tumbling from her lips – it feels good. It feels real, and present, and much better than fine, and she can’t remember the last time she laughed. It’s all a haze of drugs and fear or sorrow or worry or longing, and she suddenly wants to ask him not to go. Not to leave her.
“Wait,” Kathryn says, but it’s not necessary because he’s already stopped in his tracks. He’s looking at her mouth – at her smile, and he’s got a little smile curling up the corners of his lips too. Something about that has her biting her lip, trying to resist the impulse to smile wider herself, like they’re two mirrors reflecting endlessly back and forth. She breathes out quickly with her chapped bottom lip stinging against her teeth, then asks, “What’s your name?”
“Oh,” he says. “Sorry, I’m Jim, uh, nice to meet you.” He steps back towards the bed quickly and extends a hand. “I teach gym at the school, and I own a fitness shop.”
His palm is warm against hers and sends a little frisson through her skin. Kathryn feels warmth flush through her, wonders if it’s another side effect of the drugs she’s still detoxing from.
“Nice to meet you, Jim the gym teacher,” she says, and can’t help quirking her lips up as she shakes his hand firmly before letting go. “I’m Kathryn… but you probably know that.”
She doesn’t mention her last name. She’s been thinking about changing it back. Independence is something she craves, right now.
“Yeah,” Jim laughs. “After all that yelling it into the woods, I don’t think I could forget.”
“Right,” she says, smiling again to match his, and for a moment they just smile in silence at one another. It should be awkward, but it isn’t at first – not until there’s a noise in the hallway and Jim clears his throat, starts to say his goodbyes.
Kathryn nods politely and rests her head back on her pillows, and almost lets him leave. But the thought has her biting her lip again anxiously, the prospect of sitting here alone, entirely alone with nothing to do but come down off her drugs and think – it’s not a pleasant one. She wants to focus on the positives, on what she’s going to do when she gets out of here, if law school is still possible at this point or what she’ll have to do to make it possible if it isn’t. But she can’t help the sinking feeling that as soon as Jim is gone and she’s left alone, her thoughts will drift back to all the places she doesn’t want to linger on. That basement will feature prominently, and David, and Regina, and her big empty house and everything she’d wanted to leave behind…
“You can come back,” she tells Jim, feeling a little silly but also a little desperate. “If you want to. We could talk some more.”
He’s halfway out the door, but he stops at her words, and… the smile on his face is as bright as gold.
“I’d love that,” he says with genuine, almost intense, feeling.
My Jolie, how do you do?You close your eyes and kiss your hand, then you blow it.Will you remember the dress I wore?I hear those ice cream bells and I start to drool;A strange kind of love.
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Send me a 'hi' and I'll post the first lines of five songs as a poem.
SIGN, EMBROIDERY
SCREENING and
SPORTING GOODS
business for sale in
Storybrooke, owners are
highly motivated $40,000
obo, can be seen on the
web, call Jim at 555-0131
Sporting Goods and Jim - as in Frederick's Storybrooke identity Jim the gym teacher? What reason would he (and Kathryn?) have to be "highly motivated" to sell off his sporting goods store?
divinethedivine replied to your post:divinethedivine replied to your post...
I don’t mind the Hel at all but everyone = oops saying the first syllable is saying HELL I can’t do that. I like it when someone says it accidentally but people are uncomfortable whenever it happens. Gams also was almost a thing. But it didn’t stick.
That's silly, I'd call you Hel no problem. To be honest, Gams sounds weirder to me. Or not weird exactly, but it just doesn't work as well for some reason? I dunno.
Just seems a shame to not have much option for a nickname, I guess. Even if you like your full name, still.
divinethedivine replied to your post “divinethedivine replied to your post:one and/or sixty-seven Do you...”
My middle name is Gamble (Helen Gamble was my great-grandmother's maiden name and I'm named after her so it's not a joke) so I never had a nickname ever. The nickname for Helen is Nell or Nelly which clearly didn't take because OH LIKE THE RAPPER?
And when I went to a casino for the first time and got my ID looked at I was so mad that no one noticed my middle name.
First of all, I'm just going to point out that you had at least one other nickname option. Just saying. Secondly, are you serious? That is such a waste, if I were there I would've probably tried to draw attention to your middle name in increasingly stupid ways until someone said something.
divinethedivine replied to your post:one and/or sixty-seven
Do you generally get called Vicky by everyone or is that just for Tumblr mostly?
No, never. Vicky is my fandom nickname, no one IRL ever uses it. I go by my first name - which I like, and I'm fine with, but I've always liked Vicky too. One time I tried to get people to call me that instead but everyone just stared at me blankly for a minute and then said variations of "no way are you a Vicky, please" so it didn't exactly take.
